COUGARS HOST NO. 20/19 OHIO STATE SATURDAY: Washington State University closes out its nonconference home slate hosting No. 20/19 The Ohio State University Saturday at Noon in Beasley Coliseum.

WSU PARTNERS WITH NIKE N7 FOR NATIVE AMERICAN APPRECIATION DAY: Saturday's contest against Ohio State will be Washington State's Second Annual Native American Appreciation Day. As a land-grant university, part of WSU's mission is to deliver quality education to all citizens of the State of Washington, and WSU is committed to strengthening its relationship with Native American Tribal Governments and improving the quality of educational opportunities for Native American students here at WSU. For the second year, WSU is partnering with Nike N7 to spread the sport of basketball as a vehicle to inspire change in communities. For more information, please visit www.niken7.com. In last season's N7 game, No. 14 Louisville held off the Cougars upset bid, 75-71 despite 22 points from WSU's Ireti Amojo.

NEXT UP: The Cougars will hit the road for its final three nonconference games, heading to Kentucky to take on No. 8/8 University of Louisville, next Tuesday and New York for a matchup at Syracuse University next Friday. Both games are slated for 4 p.m. (PT) starts.

LISTEN IN: Fans can follow the Cougars during the regular season on Pullman's KHTR (104.3 FM), KQQQ 1150 AM or go to WSUCougars.com and listen to with a subscription to Cougar All Access. Steve Grubbs will be calling the play-by-play for the Cougs this season.

COUGAR ATHLETICS ON THE WEB: Connect with Washington State University Athletics on the web at WSUCougars.com, the official website of Cougar Athletics. Fans can follow along on the Cougars Gameday page at http://www.wsucougars.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/gameday.html.

FOLLOW THE COUGS AND June Daugherty ON TWITTER: Follow Washington State women's basketball on twitter @WSUWomensHoops and head coach June Daugherty @CoachJuneD.

ABOUT OHIO STATE: Ohio State enters Saturday's game with a 6-2 record and ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press and No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Buckeyes won last year's inaugural meeting between the two programs, 79-57 in Columbus. Guard Tayler Hill paces the club in scoring at 19.8 ppg and is shooting 45.3 percent from behind the arc. Head coach Jim Hill owns a 267-71 record in his 11 seasons with the Buckeyes.

LAST YEAR'S OHIO STATE-WSU MEETING: Washington State dropped a 79-57 decision at No. 11/13 Ohio State last season. Carly Noyes led the Cougars with 15 points while Jazmine Perkins notched a double-double with 11 points and 15 rebounds. Tia Presley finished with 10 points, all in the first half. Ohio State shot 45.2 percent in the second half and used a 15-1 run midway through the second half to pull away from the Cougs who were held to 29.0 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes. Ohio State finished the game shooting 44.3 percent and scored 24 points off of 18 WSU turnovers. The Cougs shot 33.8 percent from the floor and owned a 45-40 rebound advantage while the Buckeyes committed just nine turnovers.

GALDEIRA OPENS CAREER WITH BIG NUMBERS: Freshman guard Lia Galdeira made history with her 33-point point performance in the double-overtime season-opening loss at Minnesota. Galdeira set a WSU freshman record for points in a game after going 12-of-27 from the floor, 7-of-8 at the free throw line while adding five steals. The Kamuela, Hawaii native broke the previous record of 28 points shared by Nikky Mohr (Puget Sound, 11/26/83) and Jazmine Perkins (Northern Colorado, 11/28/08). She was later named to the Best Buy Classic all-tournament team after posting 12 points, six rebounds and three steals in the overtime defeat to South Dakota State. Galdeira followed that weekend with her first career double-double, 11 points and 13 rebounds, to go along with six assists and six steals in her home debut against Monmouth. She later posted 15 points and six steals against Wisconsin.

NOYES CLIMBING WSU RECORD BOOKS: Senior center Carly Noyes continues her climb up WSU's career top-10 in blocks and starts. Noyes is 13 blocks away from breaking Holly Zapel's top mark of 147 and is on pace to break Katie Appleton's record for career starts of 110. Noyes enters Saturday's game with 95 career starts, 101 games played and as the Pac-12's active leader in career blocks with 135.

PRESLEY PICKS UP WHERE SHE LEFT OFF: Sophomore point guard Tia Presley has scored in double-figures in the four of the last six games including a 21-point performance against Monmouth and a 22-point outing against UC Riverside. The Spokane, Wash. native also grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds at UCR to notch her first career double-double. Presley is second on the team at 12.4 ppg and leads the team with 24 assists. Last season, Presley scored in double-figures five times and made 15 starts before a foot injury kept her out of the final 12 games.

FIVE CONFERENCE GAMES TO BE TELEVISED: WSU will play five of its Pac-12 Conference games on the Pac-12 Networks this season. The games that will be televised will be WSU's game at UCLA, Jan. 11, both games against the University of Washington, Jan. 15 and 20, the Feb. 17 game at University of Oregon on the Pac-12 Networks Oregon/Washington and the regular-season finale at home against Stanford University, Feb. 26 on the Pac-12 Networks.

PAC-12 TOURNAMENT MOVES TO SEATTLE: With its new partnership with Force 10 Sports Marketing, LLC, the Seattle Sports Commission and Seattle Center, the Pac-12 Conference will bring the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament to KeyArena in Seattle in 2013. The new agreement, which runs through 2015, moves the tournament to the first full week in March to strengthen television windows and maximize national exposure. ESPN2 will televise the championship game, while all other games will be carried nationally on the Pac-12 Networks.

WSU NOTCHES MOST WINS SINCE 1995-96: Washington State finished the year with 13 wins, the most by a Cougar team since the 1995-96 team recorded 17 victories. The Cougars also posted their second double-digit win season since the 2000-01 with both double-digit win campaigns coming under head coach June Daugherty, notching 13 victories this season and 11 in 2008-09.

COUGARS CLOSE OUT SEASON WITH PAC-12 TOURNAMENT RUN: Washington State University closed out its 2011-12 season with a couple wins at the Pacific Life Pac-12 Tournament in Los Angeles. The Cougars beat No. 6 Oregon State in the opening round, knocked off No. 3 seed USC on its home floor to advance to the semifinals held in the Staples Center. WSU then matched No. 2 seed California for 30 minutes before falling in the semifinal matchup.

FINAL RPI RANKINGS RELEASED: After playing one of the toughest nonconference schedules in the country and with an equally challenging Pac-12 slate, Washington State finished the season No. 106 in the RPI rankings released by NCAA.com, up 50 spots from 2010-11. Seven of the Cougars opponents finished in the top 50.